Hilary Duff fully expects to be hit with Lizzie McGuire questions whenever she’s in public, and Monday night’s (March 9) visit to The Tonight Show was no different. After host Jimmy Fallon gushed about loving the early aughts Disney Channel smash that made Duff a star, he asked her which young performer she was obsessed with as a kid.
“The Olsen Twins,” she said without hesitation, reeling off Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen classics such as their 1992 debut album, Brother For Sale. “When they were twin sister spies? I had it on video guys, my VHS! And I was obsessed with the Olsen Twins,” Duff recalled. She then dropped more names than a phone book, recalling attending Aaron Carter’s birthday party — before they dated — and meeting both of the Olsens. “‘I have arrived. I’ve made it, both of the Olsen twins are here,'” she recalled thinking at the time.
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Duff, on hand to promote her first LP in 10 years, Luck … or Something, agreed to take some audience questions, beginning with one about her favorite on-screen love interest. Choosing between Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray) in A Cinderella Story, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) in Gossip Girl and “Paolo” (Yani Gellman) in The Lizzie McGuire Movie, the singer/actress chose Chad Michael Murray for his iconic slow walk up the bleachers.
She also talked about the nerves she’s feeling about her upcoming Lucky Me tour, her first arena swing in 20 years, and promised that there will be an expanded edition of Luck — which debuted in the top 10 across four Billboard album charts dated March 7 — coming out soon. The segment ended with mother of four Duff teaching Fallon the iconic choreography from her 2007 “With Love” dance routine.
Duff also stuck around for a round of the “Sip & Sing Challenge” game, in which she and Fallon had to take a sip of water and hold it in their mouth while singing. Fallon was up first, trying to burble his way though Harry Styles’ “Watermelon Sugar.” Duff had no earthly idea what Fallon was up to, so when it was her turn to sip and sing Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic,” she made sure to provide more melody and the host instantly guessed the right answer.
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Fallon did a bit better with Benson Boone’s “Mystical Magical,” though Duff could not come up with the artist or song title. And though she vigorously thought she was singing Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” the Roots had to laugh when she sang “Freedom” instead. The game ended with both taking gulps from their big cups and trying to make Roots drummer Questlove land on A-Ha’s “Take on Me.” He nailed it, naturally.
The visit ended with a sensual performance of the new album’s grown-up romance drama single “Roommates,” with Duff starting out draped over a leather chair in a white, gauzy floor-length strapless dress with a high-cut showing off her legs. “I only want the beginning, I don’t want the end/Want the part where you say, ‘Goddamn’/ Back of the dive bar, giving you h–d/ Then sneak home late, wake up your roommates,” she sang while expressing sexual frustration on the track co-written with her husband, musician Matthew Koma, and Brian Phillips.
